Meet the Writer: HackerNoon's Contributor Kirill Balakhonov, Web3 Product Lead @ Chainstack

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

I'm Kirill Balakhonov, working at Chainstack.com, a leading Web3 infrastructure provider. As the Lead Product Manager, I specialize in our recently launched product, Chainstack Subgraphs hosting, which focuses on blockchain data access and indexing.

Prior to this role, I spent five years in the Data Science field, where I developed and trained various computer vision neural networks and large language models.

I have a strong passion for exploring new technologies, programming, and prototyping everything on my own.

I adore my family, which consists of my wife, a 5-year-old son, and a pug dog.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

It was the first part of a three-part series called "How to Create a Telegram Bot to Monitor Your Service Uptime in Python (Part 1: Instant Metrics)." This series came after years of developing telegram bots solely for my own usage, which proved to be very helpful in various cases. I am truly inspired by the idea of having a group of intelligent helper bots that can handle certain tasks on my behalf.

Although I can't recall all of them, there were some exceptionally useful bots that continue to assist me in my daily life. They read numerous telegram channels and only send me the most interesting and relevant content. Additionally, I have several personal ChatGPT-powered telegram bot assistants, a news navigator bot, pet projects alerting&monitoring bots, and bots for sharing community links, amongst others.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I write a lot about programming. I really like the format of zero-to-hero tutorials because I always learn best using this type of material, considering it the fastest approach to learning anything. Additionally, I write about Web3/blockchains/smart contracts development, which is also my top interest in the technological business field.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

Usually, I write about a project that I have just implemented to showcase my work and share the results with the developer community. The routine is simply to describe something that I have had experience with.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

The biggest challenge for me is finding time to write after I come up with an article idea. I have so many ideas in my head that I can't possibly put them all on paper, as it would take up a significant amount of time.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

To be honest, I'm not really focused on career goals. The main thing for me is to have an interesting time and the opportunity to develop myself.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

I love walking, eating delicious food, and spending time with friends.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I love snowboarding, traveling, and watching TV shows.

What can the HackerNoon community expect to read from you next?

It would be great to write more about the real development of decentralized applications in simple language, from a first-person perspective, and for beginner developers. Web3 is an area that fascinates me from various angles, as a creator of developer tools, interesting and useful content, and as an avid learner of new technologies.

What’s your opinion on HackerNoon as a platform for writers?

This is an excellent place to study, learn new things and share experiences.

Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the Writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thank you for such a wonderful platform!